that's what you're doing. >> leaving a false trail. >> my baby ain't stupid. she knows what she's up to. >> the search continues blaming obama again. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, republicans say building a mosque is the same as burning the koran. we all remember how the bush administration conflated 11 to

fight the war they always wanted to. it's their way of saying that president obama is wrong backing the rights of those building the islamicenter as the florida pastor was about burning koraninkoran i and republicans exploiting our fears again. if you watched "hardball" last night you know it the whole affair involving the florida pastor who is or isn't going to burn korans tomorrow is a never ending s ining saga. he's convinced that he'll meet tomorrow with a new york imam in charge of the plannedla islamic center near ground zero and work out some kind of deal. that's what he says. that's what he hopes. we'll have the latest in a moment. a new war against don't ask, don't tell. audge has ruled that she will

issue an order to halt the policy. what happens now? how did we get to 9/11 being a talking point for republicans to exploit? the truce is over and it looks like conservatives are winning and i'll finish tonight with my own thoughts about how obama tried to diffuse this plan and how his opponents refuse to join in common cause even on this.ou when you read through the statem ents issued by the three people i'm going to mention now, gingrich, boehner and palin, what surprised me is the r resonance of them all. they could have said this time the president is right and the guy on the other side is dead wrong. instead they played games.

here is newt gingrich today. >> it's wrong to burnn the kora and wrong to build the mosque at ground zero and both should be stopped. i wish they would take a big step back from the ground zero mosque and build the mosque somewhere else in new york. >> what a moral disaster. here's john boehner conflating the ground zero mosque. >> to pastor jones and those who want to build the mosque, just because you have a right to do something in america does not mean it is the right thing to do. >> here is sarah palin on her facebook page. "people have a constitutional right to burn a koran if they want to, but doing so is d insensitsaive," i'd say so, "and an unnecessary provocation, much like building a mosque at ground zero." howard, that preacher down there, whatever we think of him and what we think of the quality of his mind, quality of his

heart or mind or purposes, never mentioned the mosque, never came up, ever, ever, ever until the three stooges of america decided that they were going to make this the issue, and they did it hesuccessfully to the point whe he got the message, and his congregation began sging from the same prayer book they were singing from. >> this is dominating the news once again. i talked to a top adviser to the president about what their goal was for the press conference today. i went over to that press conference. it was to deal with the economy and deal as this guy said, with some stray cats and dogs. >> right. >> this issue is not a stray cat and dog. the republicans are turning into lion and tiger. >> why are they turning it to the mosque? because they know that issue is going to continue? >> that issue continues, and the numbers quite frankly just the raw numbers on that, for in new york and elsewhere are good. so they're going to drive it, and obama is living in a different world from the one they're living. >> the world they're living in establishes in their minds a moral equivalence between an obviously controversial decision to build an islamic center

somewhere near the world trade center. the's no controversy about the evil of burning a koran.y burning a koran is indisputably aimed at causing trouble. >> chris, i'm an analyst, not an editorial writer, but this is a, outrageous comparison, it's outrageous on moral grounds. >> let's me go to mark, the politics of this, see it through. whe ere are they going with thi? they're in a way incriminating president obama by putting him on the same moral stage as that preacher down there. he wants to burn korans, he wants to support the building of a mosque, islamic center. it seems like they're playing pretty nasty here. it's at least hardball. i think it's a little tougher. >> i'm not sure which i would prefer, whether they actually believe there's a moral equivalency there or they don't and they'rl e using it for political purposes. either way, whichever it is, this is not just bad domestic politics for the predent, and it is and they know it, for a variety of reasons, includ ing it takes him off the economy and divides him from democrats,

which is a big problem on a range of issues, but i almost resist talking about this as a political issue. this is a national surity crisis. both of these issues are.yo you have general petraeus getting involved in a dostic matter of the first amendment issue shows the extraordinary extent to which people in the military are -- men and women overseas think this is a big enough deal, and to have it to be brought into domestic politics and inflamed by republicans, again, out of principle, maybe, out of political purposes maybe, whatever the reason is really a national and international tragedy. and unfortunately the esident, for a variety of reasons, is too weak on his own to deal with it. >> this is so rare in american politics to say this is my religious faith i have to put it out here as a shield who are denying i have it. here's the president today on his faith. let's listen. >> as somebody who, you know, relies heavily on my christian faith in my job, i understand,

you know, that the passions that religious faith can raise. but i'm also respectful that people of different faiths can practice their religion, even if they don't subscribe to the exact same notions that i do. >> you know, mark, the sad thing is, i know the president went in there as we were all professionals, he went in with certain words he wanted to punch out like middle class and tax cuts held hostage. the sad thing is he may have well been more admonished by his people, you better remind everybody you're christian. that's the sad thing. whatever you are in this country, you shouldn't have to brandish your religion in lf-defense. >> if that was an ad lib i would be shocked. a few weeks ago i thought moving the islamic center was bad for america. then i evolved to the view, whatever the result, it needed to be manageby the president. and needed to be managed by unity. now it should move and has to

move. which is unfortunate. >> explain that view. i'm a little bit surprised by that. >> i just thintok that there's o much opposition to it, and the feelings are too raw. and frankly, i think most of all, the people who are in charge of building it are not handling themselves well enough to build it the right way, to build it in a show of unity, rather than a show of division. >> do you have a sense when th you're walking past th is going to be a big object of the news tomorrow on nightly and other programs or over the weekend. when you walk by and look at that building in a row of buildings, doeit seem like it's facing the world trade center? does it seem like it's in the face of? >> chris, i jog down there all the time. that's where i end my runs. it's really close. when people say it's two blocks, it's steps away. and it's just too raw. i'm fine if it's built there, if it's built the right way. i have no confidence that the president and the mayor and the city and the country can come together and build it the right way. i just want to say one thing about the politics.

if this were a cold war issue and there was a democratic president vulnerable on the cultural and national security issues of the type implicated here and politicians are saying these things who were republicans, we'd have no doubt that they were doing it on purpose, they were doing purely to discombobulate the president and undermine his image. and ain, i'd like to give those ree the benefit of the doubt. but you saw what the president had do today, as howard and you pointed out. he had to brandish his christian faith. that shows the extent to which he's discombobulated. >> that's called a religious test, by the way. >> not only that, today the president moved slightly back in the direction of saying they should build it. >> they pushed him into that. >> he is. he tacked back a little bit by saying if you could build a church -- >> newsfacts, a conservative blog, website put that out today. he took the strongest position so far. >> if you can build a church there, a synagogue there, a hindu temple there.

the president doesn't like to shall -- he doesn't like to be pushed on these kinds of things on the one hand. on a one hand he does the christian rift. on the other hand, he says they should be able to build it there. and that's the -- >> mark, respond to this. we have a little time here. here is the president on the mosque. a lot of people didn't hear this yet today. let's listen. >> with respect to the mosque in new york.i i think i've been pretty clear . and that is that this country stands for the proposition that all men and women are created equal.er that they have certain inalienable rights. one of those rights is to practice their religion freely. what that means is that in you could build a church on a site, you could build a synagogue on a site, if you can build a hindu temple on a site, then you

should be able to build a mosque on the site. >> way too strong, mark? >> if he were my -- way too weak. if he were my professor w at th university of chicago, my law professor, i would say i love that teacher. he's really eloquent. that's not what needed by the president of the united states. this is not a local issue. it's not a national interview. itha's an international issue. and that's his strongest position, i still don't know wh he actually thinks should be done. what i do know is it cannot be solved now, whether it's going to be moved or built there. it cannot be solved without his heleadership and leadership is t taking a theoretical lawyerly position, which is what he's still doing. >> i worry about what will happen internationally if we do move it. who knows. what a hot subject. we thought this had a lid on it today. it does not. this weekend it's coming. howard fineman, thank you, sir. when we return the latest on pastor terry jones. he says, well, he says he won't burn the koran, but for some reason he still is claiming he has a meeting in new york this weekend. there isn't going to be a meeting. what happens when he comes to that realization. we don't know how reality hits this guy. you're watching "hardball" on

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welcome back to "hardball." looks like that koran burning scheduled for tomorrow is off but it is stirred up. steve stone is pastor of the church down in memphis when a new islamic center came to his town, pastor stone put up a song that read hearted is song church williams memphis islamic center to the neighborhood. also with us is brent walker. should i call you both reverendn i think i should. what do you think is the way americans should look at this, reverend stone, at this situation in new york right now?

>> the situation in new york? you know, the situation in new york to me is whether or not somebody is going to hurt somebody's feelings, which is important. the situation in florida was about whether or not someone was going to get killed. >> yeah. because the burning of koran would be so outrageous to some people. >> oh, definitely. you know, e jesus i know and love gave us two whole commandments. they're both about love. and the second one is about loving your neighbor. >> let me go to reverend walker, rather brent walker. let me ask you the same question. what do you think about these two issues? put them together. some piticians as we mentioned have done that. >> they are related. both involve fundamental first amendment rights the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion. but the affect of them, of each is going to be completely different. they're apples and oranges when it comes to the effect of the two. but i think they are related in this sense, and thevis goes to e question you asked reverend stone. i think building the mosque in manhattan would be a monument to american democracy, to religious

libey that we treasure in this country, to the plush pluralism that we have. far from being a detriment, i think it would be a monument to the goodness of america in part to counter the notion abroad we are all like reverend jones. 99.99% of the american people think he's crazy, and we need to get that message out. whbrat bete ter way to do it tho embrace the mosque in lower manhattan. >> how do we deal with people of faith and people not of faith in is country? it seems to me there is two or three reactions, reverend stone. if you have a deep faith in your christianity, for example, you might come away from that or elevate yourself from that so confident of your faith and the righteousness of your beliefs

that you can account for the possibility of other people having, if not the true faith, a faith. and you respect a faith. you don't say it's the right one, but you say well that person is being led in that direction by some decision or upbringing, and i'll respect it, even though i don't have faith in that faith. no, if you give any kind of countenance to other religions, you're denying your own.e how do you square that at the pulpit? >> well, what we teach at heartsong is the way we follow jesus is not a religion in itself. religion is rules and regulations that people have made up to try to control other people, but we respect everybody's faith. we deal with people as human beings. and what their faith is, is way down the line for us. >> i'm told some people call them, if you will, fundamentalists in this countryl evangelicals who believe so strongly in their christianity that they believe that b islam wrong, it's even evil, because it's a wrong faith, and it should be, if not denied, maybe more than nied, it should be reessed.

>> to me, i don't have the right to judge a heart of another human being, and the people across the street from us in memphis tell us they worship the one true god i don't have a right to judge that. i can't look inside their heart and see what they're doing. i take them at face value. >> your thoughts on that, brent walker? >> it doesn't water down my validity of my faith and my belief to concede to somebody else their right to believe as they see fit, as long as they don't try to impose it on me. so i think that you need to recognize the fundamental christian virtue of humility. we often forget that. and i think pastor jones is ignoring that principle. seems to me he's following bad theology, bad churchmanship, and bad citizenship. in the way he's handling this situation. >> let me offer you something i agree with. i think you will. people came to this country to get away from religious intolerance, to get away from 2,000 years of european religious warshere you had,

you know, the eugonats thrown out of france cause they were protestant, and the same kind of things going on both sides. >> yes, i think so. d you know, i have a friend in the islamic community, ali. he and i were talking on the phone. he said "it hurts me so much for people to look at mend think i'm un-american." he said "i came to america because i love the freedom here. i could not worship in my faith as i wanted to where i lived." >> well, okay, thank you, gentlemen. thank you, reverend stone. thank you, brent walker. it's great to ha two men with deep belief and tolerance on the same program tonight. up next, a little comic relief coming up here. hope it doesn't hurt the man involved to see himself on television again because he's been all over msnbc today. you're watching "hardball." [ le announcer ] when you start with simple ingredients,

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back to "hardball." now to the side show.

first, old school tie. guess who pastor terry jones had for a classmate in his missouri high schl. rush limbaugh. both were students at cape central high school, both class of '69. there they are as young guys. fascinating. next, some jokes never get old. arnold schwarzenegger posted this photo last night on twitter. here's what he tweeted. "over anchorage, alaska, overlooking everywhere, but can't see russia from here. we'll keep you updated as search continues." i'm surprised he tweets. palin responded late today with this tweet, "arnold should have landed. i could explained our multibillion dollar state surplus and u.s. energy security efforts. what's he been up to?" wow, kind of dry. moving to the midwest. perhaps thwildest political speech you will ever watch on television. it happened wednesday night in the star county ohio republicans. phil davidson dit get the nomination that night when the committee vote but you don't see many stump speeches like his. here it is.

>> my name is phil davidson, and i am seeking our party's nomination for the position of star county treasurer! i have been a republican in times good and i have been a republican in times bad. albert einstein issued one of my most favorite quotes in the hiory of the spoken word. and it is as follows. "in the middle of opportunity --" excuse me. in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. i'm going to repeat that so i have clarity tonight. in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. if nominated tonight i will win this election, and i'm going to say that again so there's no miscommunication tonight. if nominated tonight i win. >> take jim cramer, me, and multiply it by a thousand and you get phil davidson. anyway, he pointed out during that speech he holds a master's degree in guess what, communications. finally hitting below the be

o'donnell is hoping upset former governor mike castle during next week senate's primary. the state's republican party has filed an fec report claiming that o'donnell has coordinat her campaign activity with an outside group. in this case the tea party express, whichs against the law. catch o'donnell's reaction yesterday on "the mark levine show." >> you know, these are the type of cheap, underhanded, unmanly tactics that we've come to expect from obama's favorite republican, mike castle. you know, released a statement today saying mike, this is not a bake-off, geyour man pants on. >> she may have gotten tips fro sarah palin who called certain critical reporters impotent and limp, last week.h yesterday sarah palin endorsed a big surprise, o'donnell. brings us tonight's big number. what does sarah palin's endorsement record look like? so far she's backed 15 winners and 11 losers which makes for a winning percentage of 58. pretty good in baseball,

actually. smart money is on palin's picks, 58 percentage tonight's big number. >> that's "hardbl" for now. up next, "your business." copd makes it hard for me to breathe. but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now, i can join the fun and gas with my grandchildren. great news! for people with copd, including chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both, advair helps significantly improve lung function.

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